Electric Car Charging challenges and solutions

Charging-station maps, and articles about how different cities handle the need to charge up Electric Vehicles around the world.

Google Maps: (as of October 2018) Do a normal search within the app for either EV Charging or EV Charging Stations More informationPlugshare, the original all-inclusive charging mapping app.

Has China Brought Back the Simplest Solution?
It’s called battery swapping: A driver rolls into a battery swap station, and a person in a forklift, or a robot, replaces the drained battery with a fully charged spare. But even though battery-swapping stations are already deployed in major cities across China, retail investors don’t seem to be taking Chinese carmaker NIO’s swap network seriously. Read the article.
By Levi Tillemann and Colin McCormick, Wired, October 18, 2018

Paris Has an EV Sharing Service
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autolib%27
Hey, Uber and Lyft, there’s competition! Autolib’ is an electric car sharing service in Paris, France that maintains a fleet of electric for use on a paid subscription basis, using a citywide network of parking and charging stations. Read the Wikipedia entry.

Some Local Solutions

Commercial Charge/Park SpacesElectricTrees in San Francisco offers a subscription charging service. The business plan is simple: the company rents garage spaces in buildings and installs solar panels and battery storage, in this case for L2 (240v) charging. Customers subscribe to park their EVs in the spaces.

Low-Cost Chargers for Multi-Unit Buildings
Your employer or landlord might be interested in this CPUC program to install electric vehicle chargers for a relatively low cost at multi-unit dwelling and workplaces. PG&E will install and pay for the “infrastructure” and part of the “equipment” to supply electricity. Locations must have at least ten parking spots for chargers.

Solar Charging Canopies
Member Mark Roest points out another popular solar solution: Cities or private owners can place solar panels in a variety of locations, by putting them on a canopy over walkways, grounds or lawns or parking lots. To store the electricity when the sun shines and supply it when needed, stationary batteries can be mounted in the house, on the canopy, in the columns supporting the canopy, in a nearby building, or at the charger.